Nomad 2010: Solo into the Southwest.

[Jeepthreat]

My name is John and my Jeep's name is Nomad. I live in new York. The big city of dreams. I am departing this place for the southwest for an overland adventure. My rough plan is to cross the country and the land offroad between Arizona, new mexico, utah and californa over a 30 day period and then beat it back to ny for a full work load. I will be doing this trek in a beat up 97 tj that I am restoring on the road.

I work for a living In two fields, security of a type, and directing film projects. I am also single, so hopefully I will tastefully share some of that facet of the adventure as well. I dot have a solid plan and I am flying by the seat of my pants and I am open to all guidance on this trip. I plan to sleep outdoors a lot in undisposed camping places rather than existing campgrounds with rv's

In my signature on each update post you can see the links to my build thread and my planning thread. With that bit of background. Here we go:

This is my home, where I started from. No place loke it on earth - but I just work here. My heart and mind belong elsewhere

 

[Judoka]

Whoohoo

Sounds like a great run to me! I am subscribed! Maybe I will join you for some minute trot here in AZ. I am in the Phx area, but when I had my 97 TJ I ran it all over this State!

 

[BobA]

Are you taking all interstate or a mixture of everything? Probably some nice scenic drives with the leaves changing right now.

 

[Mr. D]

hope you have a fun and safe adventure

 

[billwilson]

all thebest buddy
send pics !

 

[Red Zebra]

Bring it man! :lurk:

 

[Jeepthreat]

The Vehicle and The Plan:

Here is the rig I have built for the job: A 97 Jeep TJ:
It used to look like this:

Now it looks like this:

4.0 6 CYL
31" BFG
2" Terraflex Suspension lift ( partially done!!!!!)
Fox 2.0 8-way Adjustable shocks.
LED Headlights
LED Underbody Lighting
CB Radio
in-Dash mp3 player.
in Dash Inverter 1500 watts continuous power.
Twisted Stitch Seats with lumbar support.
Smittybuilt I Rack for Gas cans. Sorta.
uninstalled: high-angle driveshaft and advance adapters SYE - in sneaker boxes in back.
Tuffy Glove Box
American Flags - oh yeah!
Raingler Nets and grab handles.
Duster Deck Cover.
Element doors / Half assembled
On board cameras
On board laser systems
NO TOP!#@! Why do I always have to do it the hard way.

The plan - race down the coast and beat the cold weather, fix the jeep as I push westward. begin going overland the hard way and camping out. I am also a single dude and will probably get into trouble dating along the way. Targets to visit range from the Moab desert to the Grand canyon to Needles California - Death Valley anyone? Meteor Crater - and anywhere else lonely and scenic I can reach - the more off the beaten path (I.E. not paying fees) the better! - I'm not a rock climber - but I love any other off-road challenge. I am currently in new orleans getting my bearings and catching up on the narrative - testing all my systems - and doing some loooong driving - so if you are patient, soon will come the part we all live for - exploring the great outdoors!. i am flying kinda by the seat of my pants - but i am open to all suggestions and destinations where i can hit and I have some pictures of places i'd like to go from this forum but I have not identified yet. So thanks for the encouragement and feel free to offer advice or criticisms.

I'll be taking interstates, till about texas - then the fun begins!

Here is a google map of my progress across the states:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...4601728942887901359.0004924af5d4d69aadbb4&z=8
I wish there was a way to connect all the tracks - but they get broken up - I also wish i could embed the map into a post.

 

[Jeepthreat]

So right before I left, I tested out my CB setup at the one place still in the new your city to go to. Peter knows his stuff:

Then before i mounted the laser system, I tested it out. I still feel like i need to waterproof the setup. More on this later:


Then down in atlanta i began serious tests of the on board camera systems which consists of two Hero Hd cameras. I have a serious problem because i didn't bring a laptop and I have no way to offload the expensive 32 GB SD cards. The Ipad simply cannot process the footage with the current software, so my only hope is upload via FTP to a server and delete the cards. (32 GB from the desert? HOW?). My friend cut this and uploaded as I hit the road for alabama.

 

[Jeepthreat]

I left brooklyn, Ny way late at night - 10pm. it took forever to fix everything and pack up since I would be leaving for at least 2 weeks but perhaps and month and a half - who knows. Work is piling up but why should I care? I'm going overland!

I head down the I-95 thinking I am going to my first stop in delaware to a good friends house who is technically inclined - but suddenly i can't reach him on the phone! It's night time - I am driving with no top in october down the jersey turnpike and i am kinda cold. I curse myself for bad planning - honestly - i didnt call the guy all day. Suddenly - my car radio goes out! NO HARD DRIVE! Uh oh! No music all the way to the west coast from new york? Oh no!

I pull off into downtown philly and I get out of the jeep.

I am thinking I'll go get a beer and make some calls and see what happens. I am brushing my teeth behind my spare wheel spitting into the street when suddenly a girl walks up to me and asks if I am all right. I say yes and that I am embarrassed. she says at least you brush your teeth! i ask if she would like to get a drink and she says yes. We have some laughs and she understands my situation and she let's me crash at her pad! PS: she was smoking hot.

Except - it was - well - unusual to say the least:

Well i made it thru the night - we stayed up all night talking! I got zero sleep and I said i had to go - the Moab desert was calling - but that I would be back to visit her on my way back. Her place was mega-creepy but she was - very cool.

Somehow none of my stuff got stolen last night thank goodness - sitting on the streets in philly wide open - so I feel like I need a duster cover to hide all this stuff im driving around with. I leave out in the morning and I hit quadratec is west chester PA and pick one up.

I hit the highway for delaware and my buddy says he has to take his kids to six flags! uh oh! stuck! I have another friend in delaware so i pulled in there and stay there and her lovely daughter helped me fix the jeep radio and put on the duster cover to hide everything but the radiator.

6 years old and she is a jeep girl already and pretty good with a socket wrench from one day of lessons!

I stayed up in her attic on my clothes

I picked up a drill and dremel from Lowes - figuring I might need that on my trip - i had left them home and I needed them to make certain repairs on my way to the desert.

I ride off the next day for Georgia from Delaware. 10 hours/813 miles - I got caught in traffic in virgina and landed in the carolinas at nightfall which was FREEZING at 70 MPH.

i had to keep getting hot cocoa wherever I could.

i have a cast iron stomach and eat things from the ground but at this rest stop this cup behind bars did me in - it tasted disgusting - like urine and I had a pain in my gut all the way to stone mountain. i rolled to my friends house freezing at 4am.

At this point i have to say the most useful tools have been my g2 android phone for pinpoint navigation - my in dash inverter for powering everything on the go and my raingler nets for keeping all that junk in.

I did two days in georgia, testing the cameras, putting in a new radiator, and tightening up lots of little things like the dash and it's gauges. I made some good friends in georgia, including some jeepers - one mechanic who me and him and great laughs talking about dating online and driving jeeps. I saw a sale for a drill from sears , cordless! 19.2 volt - so I returned the corded dewalt to lowes and kept the dremel.

I also chatted it up with the grease monkey's who hang around autozone. I almost ran up to tellico - almost! but the desert calls - so off I drove to mobile, alabama and crashed in a park in my sleeping bag across the seats. My sleeping bag is stuffed into a Waterproof Compression sack that I highly recommend. My clothes are in a second one:

In the morning I headed to New Orleans across the i-10! Boy its hot here. Im gonna put in a day or two here, hanging with a friend and making big repairs on the jeep and mapping out my targets. I have to find a shop to help with me with driveshaft somewhere between here, texas, and new Mexico - and a place to get something welded for the gas cans - anyone have someone to recommend?

Hope you enjoy the story. Hope to get to the good part - living outside!

 

[Abel Villesca]

Nice! About when do you estimate you'll be coming through New Mexico?

 

[Jeepthreat]

Nice! About when do you estimate you'll be coming through New Mexico?

2 to 3 days to cross texas. thinking about austin and el paso, and i also need to pick up a bike from cragslist. so many randoms, but I would say 2=3 days is a good estimate. I still need to do custom fab work and driveshaft repair, getting thru repairs a little everyday

 

[Jeepthreat]

So i will have spent 3 days here in New orleans, before I hit the southwest.
I really like this city - I only have been there right after the hurricane so I really didn't know how magical it is.
Truly a special place,

Did some auto fishing!

I love new orleans. It has it's magic again. I spent most of my daylight hours in the bayou exploring and fishing and trying not to drown the jeep!, then partying then, racing around the french quarter at night lawlessly, and then back to the bayou to crash. I got rear ended on veterans highway among other things and that has caused certain issues for my trip. The girl was so cute and flirting with me that I let it go, but now I realized what has happened to the jeep. Here are onboard camera test offroading in the bayou, went into the water too.



One thing to note is that the space between these rusting metal digger crane maws are close together, but the fisheye nature of the lens on the camera makes it seem like it's a long way away. this longer shot from the onboard side camera shows the spatial relational better:

The girl was so cute and she gave me a hug after we settled things, and asked me to lunch! but she rear eneded me and i let it go, but it enhanced my burgeoning problem of the weight of the mounting plate for the gas gans breaking off the stump. I think i need to get it welded before it falls off on the highway. I took it off temporarily.

my phone also totally didnt work for a while, wouldnt take a charge, something is wrong! I think the battery when it goes all the way dead (my heavy usage of GPS, taking photos and video and uploading it automatically, and social networking and texting all at the same time) it finds it hard to get a charge to come back alive. this could be trouble for me.

it is back on now. THey also managed to get root and wifi tethering working on the G2 android, So now i can work with the ipod remotely and upload photos - but i still cant' edit video quite yet on the road - and possibly for the duration of the trip except for ranging for peoples houses i know. Now i need a solution off offlining video from two 32 gb SD cards on the road.

I also have to do repairs to the laser, doors, rear carry holder, driveshaft,electrical systems, wow - lots to to! almost to the southwest.

I am shoving off this morning for autstin, texas to live by my wits, or the middle of texas to camp. let's shake the caboose and see what comes loose.

 

[Lance4me]

Its been a while since the last post, wonder hows your adventure going?

 

[Area56]

No Top Eh? I've done a 1000 mile trip to and around that area in a jeep with no top in July. It was absolute hell, but I suppose we looked cool. We were either freezing in the mountains riding in our sleeping bags looking like worms, or we had sunstroke in the desert. I remember going into a grocery store in moab and we found ourselves huddling around the hot deli counter trying to get warm because the air conditioning in the store was such a shock after being in the direct sun all day.

Take more water than you'd even consider needing. You need a whole lot more with the exposure than if riding in a regular truck.

Driving in the rain wasn't so bad, we got lucky I suppose. At the very minimum I suggest a bikini top to keep the sun at bay, and some kind of skin on your doors to keep the wind from wicking all the heat away from you. Leave the full top at home though if you want to remember the trip forever.

 

[CSG]

What happened to Jeepthreat?